Pembina Gorge and Icelandic State Park

The Pembina Gorge is a genuine geological surprise. Where most of the Red River Valley is table-flat, the Pembina River has cut a deep, winding valley several hundred feet into the land, its slopes cloaked in the largest unbroken hardwood forest in North Dakota. Oak, aspen, birch, and elm crowd the hillsides, and the river winds along the valley floor far below the rim.

This forested gorge is a remnant of a wilder, greener country, and it holds a richness of plant and animal life unusual for the plains. Moose, deer, and beaver move through the woods, and the valley is alive with birdsong in the nesting season. For a state defined by open horizons, the gorge feels like a hidden world.

This northeast corner has long been the country of the Pembina Chippewa and the Métis, whose communities spread across the borderland where North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba meet. The Pembina region was one of the earliest sites of trade and settlement in the state, a crossroads of native nations, fur traders, and the mixed Métis people who lived between worlds.

In the later 1800s waves of pioneers came to break the land, among them a distinctive community of Icelandic immigrants who settled around present-day Icelandic State Park and gave it its name. They joined Norwegians, Germans, and others in the hard work of homesteading this remote frontier, and their story is one of endurance in a demanding country.

Icelandic State Park protects a stretch of the gorge country along with a preserved pioneer homestead and heritage buildings that recall the settlers who came here. The Gunlogson homestead, built by an Icelandic pioneer family, stands within a nature preserve of native woods, and a heritage center gathers relocated pioneer-era buildings that recreate an early prairie community.

The park's Pioneer Heritage Center and its historic buildings make the immigrant story vivid, while the surrounding nature preserve keeps a pocket of the original forest intact. It is an unusual pairing, a natural sanctuary and a living-history village side by side, each deepening the other.

The gorge is laced with trails used for hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding, winding through the hardwood forest and along the river. The riding here is some of the best in the state, and the mix of woods, water, and steep terrain makes for genuine adventure in a part of North Dakota few travelers reach.

Summer is green and full, the busy season for the trails and the campground, though the woods bring ticks and mosquitoes. Fall is the gorge at its finest, when the hardwood forest blazes gold and rust, a rare display of autumn color on the plains. Winter turns the valley into snow country for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, quiet and white.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.